Transcription

Connor:
You’re listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun and practical ways.

Chris:
Well, hey, everybody. Good morning. Good morning. We talk all night through good morning. Good morning to you. You missed your calling. Yeah, that’s me. That’s me. Hey, I am Chris Zarbaugh, and next to me is Wesley Woods.

Wesley:
Yeah, good to be here again.

Chris:
Yes, and this is the second day that you’re joining us because you’re filling in because Jeff’s out of pocket. Yeah. And we are the Bible Guys today, and it’s been a great segments so far yesterday was great. Today’s gonna be even better. Don’t you agree?

Wesley:
Yeah, it’s gonna be good, good stuff man.

Chris:
That’s right. So today we’re gonna dive right into it with a segment that Desiree has given to us called Dad joke competition, which by the way, I think I think remains is my favorite. Yeah, I think but it all depends if the joke is like really womp womp. Yeah Okay, I haven’t read mine yet. I always read mine real time and So here we go. I’ll start with the first one. Okay. Then we’ll go, we’ll take turns. Um, today I had someone knock on my door asking for small donations toward the local swimming pool. I gave him a glass of water.

Wesley:
My inflatable house got a puncture last night now.

Chris:
I’m living in a flat and Oh, that’s a dad joke. That’s a dad joke for sure. Oh, here we go. Okay. Walking home last night, I passed a slice of apple pie, a hot fudge sundae, and a lemon cheesecake. I thought to myself, the streets are strangely deserted tonight.

Wesley:
Oh.

Chris:
That was okay, I guess. That was okay.

Wesley:
I like this one.

Chris:
My daughter would like that one. Yeah. She loves these dad jokes.

Wesley:
I was abducted by aliens, they made me wash my hands, clean my room, and eat my vegetables. Turns out, I was on the mothership.

Chris:
Wow You know that’s that’s that’s okay. Okay. You know these ones so far We’re doing a we’re doing a three play of words kinds of things right the glass of water wasn’t a play of words that was just clever Yeah, all right here. We go number three my wife, and I laugh at how competitive we are but I laugh more I Oh, that’s so good. I like that one really a lot. That’s good.

Wesley:
I told my waitress that my coffee tasted like mud. She said, it should. It was fresh ground this morning.

Chris:
Oh, fresh ground this morning.

Wesley:
I like that one, though. It was fresh ground.

Chris:
To me, that’s better than the other one. Yeah. That’s funny. Although that’s a play on words one as well, right? Isn’t it? Yep. All right, here we go. Oh, talk about a play on words. Holy cow. Ready? What do you call a dinosaur that crashes his car? I don’t know. Tyrannosaurus rex.

Wesley:
They’re thinking like what could that be? Yeah, okay? What do you call a medieval spy? bad spy Okay, what sir?

Chris:
valence oh That’s bad. That is really that that’s the can we deem that as the worst one? Yeah so far That is really bad. All right number five in the final one from me here it is Singing in the shower is all fun and games until you get body wash in your mouth, then it’s a soap opera Jeez That actually was pretty good. I like it too. I like it too.

Wesley:
Okay. Last one. A sweater I bought was picking up static electricity. So I returned it to the store. They gave me another one free of charge.

Chris:
That’s pretty good. That’s pretty good. So, wow. Talk about playing on words.

Wesley:
We got to blame Desiree.

Chris:
I, by far, let’s vote the best one. I don’t know what you think is the best one. I think the glass of water one is the best one.

Wesley:
Yeah, that was pretty good.

Chris:
Today I had someone knock on my door asking for small donations toward the local swimming pool, so I gave him a glass of water.

Wesley:
There’s your donation.

Chris:
That’s so funny. I don’t know where she finds these at. As if the guy is going to take the glass of water all the way back and dump it in the pool. Pour it. Yeah, he’s going to do that until he fills it. Oh my goodness, that’s funny. Pretty good. Yep. So dad joke competitions, we hope that that brightens your day so far. And if it’s in the morning, then hey, what a great way to start the morning. Today we are continuing on with our, it is our series that we’re in called Milestones of the Old Testament or Highlights of the Old Testament. And we’re just really sort of skipping around and we’re just doing the main, what is it? The essentials, right? And right now we’re walking through all the different important elements of God giving instructions about the temple. And so yesterday we covered the instructions on the sacrifices, and we forgot to mention, by the way, because we ran out of time, But remember I mentioned yesterday that it was the Tamid sacrifice or the perpetual sacrifice that happened once in the morning and once in the evening. It was also the only sacrifice mentioned in all the types of sacrifices in the Bible that has a sweet aroma to God. And so later on in the book of Hebrews, it actually talks about how Jesus, when he died on the cross, was a sweet aroma to God. Yeah. Right. So he was also connected to the perpetual sacrifice.

Wesley:
Yeah. And he was even anointed too. So they’re all kind of references you can tie in there.

Chris:
That’s exactly right. So, so that’s really cool. All right. Well, today we’re reading from Exodus chapter 30, and we’re going to be reading from verses one through 10.

Wesley:
Yeah. So it says, then make another altar of acacia wood for burning incense. Make it 18 inches square and 36 inches high with horns at the corners carved from the same piece of wood as the altar itself. Again, we’re dealing with that thing of being very specific here. Verse three, Overlay the top, sides, and horns of the altar with pure gold and run a gold molding around the entire altar. Make two gold rings and attach them on opposite sides of the altar below the gold molding to hold the carrying poles. Make the poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. Place the incense altar just outside the inner curtain that shields the Ark of the Covenant in front of the Ark’s cover, the Place of Atonement that covers the tablets inscribed with the terms of the Covenant. I will meet with you there. Verse 7 says, Every morning when Aaron maintains the lamps, he must burn fragrant incense on the altar. And each evening when he lights the lamps, he must again burn incense in the Lord’s presence. This must be done from generation to generation. Do not offer any unholy incense on this altar or any burnt offerings, grain offerings, or liquid offerings. Verse 10, once a year Aaron must purify the altar by smearing its horns with blood from the offering made to purify the people from their sin. This will be a regular annual event from generation to generation for this is the Lord’s most holy altar.

Chris:
Wow. Yeah, there’s a lot there. You know, I was always a little bit confused by that claim. This is the Lord’s most holy altar. You know, you would think that the altar, because there’s two altars in the temple, right? So one altar is an altar of sacrifice, right? And then this altar is designed only for burning incense. So the other altar is, you know, you pour out drink offerings, burn offerings. And in this altar here, the incense altar, there’s a little note here that has a little read about it in the Life Application Study Bible. And it says the tabernacle and temple. So in other words, it’s covering that this takes place also in Solomon’s temple as well, right? The tabernacle and temple contained two altars, one for burning sacrifices and one for burning incense. The incense altar was placed in front of the veil between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place, or the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctuary. The incense altar was made of cedar wood and overlaid with gold. This altar was used to burn incense before the veil, and the burning incense symbolized the prayers of God’s people ascending to God. The heavenly temple also has an altar of incense if you read in Revelation 6, 9, 8, 5, 9, 13. So the next time you pray, think of your prayers as ascending to God like incense. So this is why the more traditional religions and practices and faiths still burn incense, right? Now, even though that we know that we’re under the New Testament, you know, nothing that we, you know, that is required to, you know, to go through going through priests for forgiveness, you know, burning incense for prayers, those kinds of things. There are people that still practice that. But we also know that we’re not under the law anymore. We’re not under this type of obligation. And so therefore at our church, we don’t do any of this, right? Because it was given for a time for a specific purpose. And Jesus was the fulfillment of the symbolization of all of this. And Paul clearly tells us we’re not under the law. Now, is there anything wrong with burning incense to symbolize prayer? Absolutely not. Yeah. So my brother is a devout Catholic, and so the rest of us in the family—I have four older brothers, five boys in all—so the rest of us, we all grew up sort of non-practicing Catholics, and we sort of shifted over to sort of a non-denominational type, you know, faith. But he just absolutely loves tradition. You know what’s interesting is that he is not only that way in his faith, he’s that way in his life. He’s like, Chris, don’t you love to get up and have the same bowl of cereal every single day? I’m like, I’m like, he’s like, don’t you love a routine? I’m like, I’m like, I would rather die than have a routine in my life. Right. I mean, the idea that like, you have to go to bed at the same time, get up at the same time, eat the same thing, do the same thing. I can, I promise you. That actually scares me. I would think to myself, I would not enjoy life.

Wesley:
Now, routines are great if you’re going towards a goal. I think of like an Olympic athlete. You know, they have a regimented diet, a regimented wake up, go to sleep. They need so much protein in a day. You know, they have a regimented thing. So yeah, but just in a normal everyday life,

Chris:
Well, I mean, and again, there’s nothing wrong with it. I’m just, I’m only speaking for me. Right now for my brother, Tom, I would think that he, you know, if he’s straight from his routine, he’d be like, I’m off today. I’m not on my game. Right. Something’s just not quite right. You know? And it’s like, it’s like, man, I can’t believe I’m just thrown off all day. And so therefore, so I visited a church with him, and they walked down the aisle, and they have the incense, right? And they’re waving this thing, and it has that really strong scent and everything else. And he looks at me and he goes, oh man, he goes, isn’t that… Isn’t that just unbelievable? He goes, isn’t that awesome? And I said, what do you mean? He’s like, well, you know what that symbolizes, right? I’m like, well, yeah, I do. It symbolizes the Holy Spirit. And he’s like, isn’t that amazing? I’m like, but don’t you do it every week? Right? Like if you’ve seen it your whole entire life, what’s so interesting is it’s amazing to him. Right? And so there’s nothing wrong with that. Right? Nothing wrong with burning incense for the symbolism. Right? As long as you don’t ascribe power to the incense, like without the incense, my prayers can’t reach God. That’s not what he’s saying. Yeah. Right? Without this. So just let’s be clear. Jesus came and he fulfilled everything. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with tradition. There’s nothing wrong with reciting prayers word for word over and over. There’s nothing wrong with those things. We’re just not required to do those things. right? Because Jesus has fulfilled all that. You know what’s so great is that it also mentioned that there’s a reference of this tradition that carried from the time of Exodus all the way up until the time of Jesus. So if you fast forward to Luke chapter number one, do you remember the story of when John the Baptist was announced? Yeah. right? And you remember what happened to Zechariah? And Zechariah had walked into the holy place, and what he was doing was he was burning incense. So listen to this. And it says in verse number 10, well, actually, I’ll back up, and it says, once when Zechariah’s division was on duty, and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, right, by straws, and according to the custom of the priesthood, he was to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time of the burning of the incense came, all the assembled worshippers were praying outside. Then the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled. He was gripped with fear. But the angel said, Do not be afraid. Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear a son, and you are to call him John. So, so think about this. So, so the entire family, you know, John and his wife, Elizabeth had been praying over and over and over for a child. So he goes in, he lights incense and what does he do? He prays. Yeah. And in his prayer, what does he do? He prays the same thing that his family has been praying for the yearning of his heart and his home and his legacy. Right. And, and everything else that was, he wanted a son. And so, and so the angel shows up and says appropriately at the altar of incense. Yeah. Isn’t that amazing?

Wesley:
Yeah, so funny thing about that, Chris, as you were talking about that, I was thinking of things that my wife and I have prayed for. And that’s one of the things that we prayed for in the past was for a child. So I remember we got married and it had been, I don’t know, like four years, five years and no kids. And we were praying and praying and praying. And then my wife finally got married and then she had a miscarriage. And then we were just like deflated, like, man, you know, this is really tough. But we kept praying because we knew that God was faithful. So we kept praying, kept praying, kept praying. And eventually my wife did get pregnant. But it didn’t go exactly how we planned, but God was still in the mix. And I think that’s something for everyone, our listeners, to realize that even when things don’t go according to your plan, God is still in the mix of everything. So my wife gets pregnant at about, I don’t know how many months. This would be like week 28. Her water breaks. So for those of you who know, you know, babies take nine months. That’s way too early.

Chris:
Right. So how much is 28 weeks?

Wesley:
You’re going to make me do math live now. So my daughter, her birthday is on July 8th. She was supposed to be due in September, July.

Chris:
Okay. So July, August, September. So eight weeks early.

Wesley:
Yeah. So she was super early. So when she was born, I got to back up a little bit. She decided she wanted to get free foot first. Oh wow. Literally foot first.

Chris:
So the water broke and she was breached.

Wesley:
Yeah, she was like, I’m getting out of here one way or the other. So we had to do an emergency surgery. I still remember that like it was yesterday. The doctors get her out. She’s two pounds. Literally, you could hold her with one hand. They let us see her for a quick second, whisked her away to the the NICU for babies, the ICU, and I had her hooked up to everything. And she’s perfectly healthy, fine, now doing fine, no issues, no problems. But the point is, we pray. She’s grown now. Yeah, she is driving now. I’m not ready for that. I’m not ready for driving and dating.

Chris:
I remember those days, man. Those are good days. Those are good days.

Wesley:
But the point is, we lifted our prayers unto God, like people here who were praying and burning incense. We lifted our prayer unto God, and God answered the prayer, even though things along the path didn’t, they didn’t unfold like I thought they would unfold. Even in the midst of all of that, we had great doctors, we had great nurses, we were able to share our faith in the hospital. Like so many amazing things happened out of that, that it was just amazing.

Chris:
Yeah. And so I’ll share a quick prayer story too. And I might’ve mentioned this like so long ago, like maybe even a couple of years ago on the HC Daily, I think, but my wife had prayed when we moved houses from Atlanta to Michigan. And the story was, you know, we were still paying house payments in Atlanta and we’re having to pay house payments in Michigan.

Wesley:
which is not fun. I’ve been in the two mortgage game for a couple of months and it’s not fun.

Chris:
It’s really bad, especially when the church who hires you only gives you pennies. And so we’re making pennies moving up to Michigan. And I took a pay cut and the cost of living was like 50% higher here. I took like a 40% pay cut. It was just unbelievable. It’s not good. So we’re paying and goodness, thank goodness our house payment wasn’t up here. The rent wasn’t that bad because we were staying in a house that was trying to be sold as well. Okay. Because there was a family who actually was trying to sell their house in Michigan and they went to Salt Lake City, Utah to start a church. So their house is literally for sale, but it was just sitting there. So they were like, they were being kind and they said, you know what? Our house is, you know, sitting there for sale. It has nobody in it. Why don’t you guys stay there until you can, you know, sell your house and buy a house. But they were charging us. So we were paying. And, uh, and then all of a sudden, you know, we’re making these payments. And so my wife is like, goodness gracious, we need to pray hard that our house in Atlanta sells quick. Because we’re making this payment. But at the same time, she had compassion on Krista’s house that we were staying in, right? And she says, I need to pray that this house will be sold too, because it’s been a year and nobody’s bit on this house at all in Michigan. So my wife says, but if there’s a conundrum, because if our house sells first, great, then we’ll leave, but it’s going to hurt them financially. But if their house sells first, then we’re really out of luck. Because now we’ve got to do a rent-a-house, and then we’re messing with schools, and all these kinds of things, right? And so my wife says, okay, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to pray that the houses sell and close… At the same time? No, no, no. On the same day. Oh, wow. So she goes, God, I want the houses… Now, that’s specific. That’s specific, right? But you said pray specific. She says, I want them to sell on the same day, but I want the closing dates to be on the same day. And she goes, God, they don’t know you’re in this. You know, we just uprooted our family. We just moved to Michigan from Atlanta, by the way, sunny Atlanta to the tundra of Michigan. And so anyway, so she prays. And then what turns out is that they sell on the same day and then they close on the same day. I’m not even kidding. And it’s like, what are the odds? Try to calculate that.

Wesley:
Here’s the funny thing, and I do this sometimes, too. We’ll pray for something, and then I will literally be shocked when God does it. And it’s like, well, this is what you asked for. Yeah, but that’s awesome on the same day to have both homes sell. That’s more than a coincidence. Well, I mean, think about it.

Chris:
It’s, it’s, it’s one of those things where when you ask for an advance and it happens and the odds are like probably trillions to one. I mean, I bet you some, I mean, think of all the holes in the USA and the fact that these two in separate States, you know, and then think about the unreliable predictability of closings, right? Oh, we have to reschedule closing.

Wesley:
We have to do this paperwork issue. Oh, we got a bump in a day or so.

Chris:
So in the same day, it’s just incalculable. Yeah. It’s got to be trillions to one. It really does. And so anyway, the point is, is that when that happens, it’s those times in our lives where we, when we do pray and we don’t get what we want, we look back at God’s faithfulness and we say, well, we know God hears our prayers. Yeah. We know God is listening. We know God is going to do what he’s going to do if he wants to do it. And we have to just trust in a good God who wants what’s best for us because God’s been faithful in the past. So when we struggle, and God doesn’t answer, we just have to trust that something, no matter how good or bad it is that we’re going through, something is going to be used to glorify God, and good’s going to come from even the bad things. So let me just say this as well. The idea that the altar of incense is referred to by God as His most holy altar. So think about that. Not the altar of sacrifice for sins. uh, and not where the drink offerings are, you know, which is the same altar, but this altar of prayers, that’s the most holy altar, you know, and I think, I think, I think, I think I know the reason why because The other altar, and this is just human logic, but the other altar is an altar that represents something that was outside of God’s design. Think about when God created humanity. He created humanity for relationship, right? He created humanity for worship, and he gave us free will because true love cannot exist without free will. And then outside of God’s design, there’s sin that comes into the world. So God then has to put into place a system in which we are able to approach Him again. That system, outside of God’s original design, is sort of represented by the altar of sacrifice. But the system of incense represents God’s original design at all. Or, you know, at the beginning. God’s endgame from the very beginning was a relationship with Him. So even the New Testament says that Jesus Christ comes as a mediator so that our relationship can be reconciled with God the Father. The altar of incense is so important because it represents, I believe, just connecting the dots in the scripture, it represents God’s original desire which is us coming to Him in a repentance form, in a worship form, in a loving form, praying, talking, asking, depending. And that’s what God wanted from the very beginning in the first place. And so that’s a great thing to be reminded of. What a great thought. Every time you bow your heads and close your eyes, number one, you’re in the Holy of Holies. You’re in the holy place and the most holy place. Think of your prayers as an incense and think of this, that even in heaven, the book of Revelation tells us God still has an altar of incense. But did you notice though, there’s no altar of sacrifice, right? At least I don’t think so, unless I’m wrong. I’m open to being wrong, but I’m pretty certain there’s not an altar of sacrifice in heaven, but there’s an altar of incense because God wants our relationship with him.

Wesley:
Yeah, that’s awesome. I think we’re out of time. This is another really great topic here.

Chris:
Yep. So we’re going to continue on and hopefully you’ll join us next time on The Bible Guys.